


Thaw

by DownToTheSea



Category: His Dark Materials (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Family, Found Family, Gen, but slightly dysfunctional because it's still HDM
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:40:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27064318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DownToTheSea/pseuds/DownToTheSea
Summary: After Edward Coulter's death, Lyra and Marisa move in with Ma Costa instead.
Relationships: Lyra Belacqua & Marisa Coulter, Ma Costa & Marisa Coulter
Comments: 2
Kudos: 18
Collections: Fic In A Box





	Thaw

**Author's Note:**

  * For [janetcarter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/janetcarter/gifts).



From where she worked, Ma Costa could just see Mrs. Coulter sitting near the stern of the boat, staring out across the river. Easy to understand that: it was gorgeous tonight, all red and orange and pink glittering sparkles where the setting sun’s light caught the water. But she doubted Mrs. Coulter was looking at the river because it was beautiful; she wasn’t sure if she even saw it at all. She seemed to spend most time wrapped up in her own head, mourning what she had lost.

Not Edward Coulter (the bastard) or even Asriel, but the assurance she had once possessed.

Marisa Coulter had once been the most powerful, the most confident, the most brilliant woman in any room she had taken hold of. Now, in the eyes of society, she was nothing. Worse than nothing: sinful, fallen.

Though she knew someone who would have worshiped her, if given the chance.

After Asriel had been stripped of his estate, there was no place left under his protection for Lyra. Maggie couldn’t bear the thought of seeing her go into a nunnery, so she had taken her home to the gyptians, Asriel using the last of his connections to clear their way, and somehow Mrs. Coulter had been swept into the process.

Maggie didn’t mind. Part of being a gyptian was giving a home to the lost and the exiled, and Marisa had nowhere else to go either. Besides, she had thought it might do Lyra some good to have her mother around when everything else she’d known had vanished overnight.

Not that that second hope had turned out to have much substance so far. Marisa could hardly bring herself to look at the poor child. She blamed her, Maggie supposed, for being the catalyst for everything she had suffered. Lyra wasn’t really responsible, of course; it was the Magisterium, Edward Coulter, everything about their society that was. But before now Mrs. Coulter, despite her struggles, had been able to turn that society to her advantage, and she didn't seem to be willing now to blame what had once brought her so much wealth and power for her fall, at least not yet.

For the sake of Lyra, Maggie kept trying to get her to come around, to acknowledge Lyra instead of shunning her. No child should ever feel unwanted by her own mother. So far she hadn’t had any luck. Mrs. Coulter had frozen into living ice where her daughter was concerned, and it seemed as if it might take years before she would thaw.

Maggie climbed out of the cabin and went to stand next to her, gazing out over the river while Jal flapped over her head and perched on the rail. The fiery colors were fading slowly into grey, but the embers of sunset remained, casting Marisa’s face in half-light, half-shadow. She looked like a painting that might have hung in Asriel’s mansion: beautiful, but remote.

Maggie said nothing. She had begun to speculate that a more subtle approach was required with Mrs. Coulter; the less she thought someone wanted her to reach for a thing, the more she desired it.

“Might not be able to head downriver tomorrow, if the weather doesn’t hold,” Maggie commented. Marisa turned her head slightly, but didn’t respond. Her monkey daemon was curled up at her feet.

“At least the kids will have fun if we have to stick around for a few more days.” Tony loved splashing around in the shallows, Lyuba flashing lightning quick from a swallow to a fish as she dived in.

The barest hint of a smile touched Marisa’s lips.

“I’m heading in for the night,” Maggie said. “You coming? It’ll be getting chilly soon.”

Marisa looked back down at the river, still darkening beneath them, then up and across the horizon. Maggie wondered how many splendid sunsets she had seen in her travels, across how many breathtaking landscapes, with all the world at her fingertips.

“I’ll be in soon.”

Maggie nodded, and started to move away.

“Wait,” said Mrs. Coulter.

She looked back in surprise. Marisa had turned to look her directly in the eyes. The monkey daemon raised his head.

“Lyra,” she said with some difficulty. “How… how is she?”

Jal let out a triumphant cry and soared into the air. Maggie didn't allow Mrs. Coulter to see her satisfaction, but she didn't have to force a grin. “She’s been crawling around getting into all manner of chaos. Do you want to see?”

Marisa smiled, very faintly, but it was there. Maggie imagined the crack of a melting iceberg in the frozen North.

“I think I would like that.”

**Author's Note:**

> And then they became Lyra's gay moms THE END


End file.
